Lucky escape for Chilton

Marussia driver Max Chilton may not have had a great day of racing yesterday but he was actually a very lucky man to return to the paddock unscathed.

Chilton was very close to being hit on the head with what appears to be part of a tyre that has fallen off during Kimi Raikkonens accident on the opening lap of the race, it is quite unclear whether it is just the tyre carcass or the rim as well but either way it looked a very close and scary incident for Max.

It draws comparisons with the awful accident that Felipe Massa suffered in Hungary 2009 where he was hit on the helmet by a part of the Brawn car of Rubens Barrichello, also it reminds me of the awful loss of Henry Surtees where he was hit by a flying tyre.

I feel that something needs to be done to ensure that these sort of accidents don’t happen and that parts of the cars remain safely on the car, that should anything fall off that it is not being sent into the air and towards other drivers.

It isn’t impossible that the FIA could look into the incident because it is quite clear that Chilton was very close to getting seriously injured and they may well look to fine Ferrari for it, I doubt they will but it can’t be ruled out.

Fortunately though the main thing is that Max is okay and like Kimi, wasn’t hurt.